Paul Blomfield
Main Page: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)Department Debates - View all Paul Blomfield's debates with the Cabinet Office
(4 years, 6 months ago)
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Michael Gove
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I know that the businesses for which he speaks up so effectively in Bury South and elsewhere want uncertainty removed. That is why we are clear that we will end the transition period on 31 December, which is a position I understand the CBI is now in favour of.
Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)
The Minister talks about certainty, and he is right: businesses need certainty on the outcome of the talks. On Tuesday, the Paymaster General told the House:
“On… zero tariffs and zero quotas, our policy has not changed.”—[Official Report, 9 June 2020; Vol. 677, c. 161.]
That was the pledge the Conservative party won the election on. But last week, the Government’s chief negotiator wrote:
“we would be willing to discuss a relationship that was based on less than that”.
Who is speaking for the Government—the Paymaster General or their chief negotiator?
Michael Gove
The Paymaster General speaks eloquently and powerfully on behalf of the Government, and it is right that we seek what the political declaration also commits the European Union to, which is a zero-tariff, zero-quota arrangement.